Recommended by XenonNV as part of this list.

Partway through OMORI it dawned on me that there's a timeline where this game managed to release when I was in high school and I would've 100% made it a core facet of my personality for years.

OMORI is more likely than not the game that comes to everyone's mind when they think of the quintessential "Quirky Depression Earthbirth RPG", the hypothetical dead horse that encapsulates a lot of people's gripes with the modern indie scene and all it's eccentricities, and, to concede to that stereotyped image somewhat, it's for the most part true. OMORI is part lighthearted and surreal RPG about the titular main character and his adventures in the wonderfully quirky dream world of Headspace, and part mental health story about Omori's real-life counterpart Sunny and his struggles in the mundane reality of Faraway Town with his own mental health and relationships. The primary issue with OMORI however is not really with it's oft-maligned aesthetic or subject matter, but rather the fact that it's a complete tonal mess.

Headspace, as a dream world inside of Sunny's head, is obviously allowed to be a little surreal, as it's where most of the game's Earthbound DNA is apparent, from it's cutesy enemies to it's fun cast of eccentric NPCs and elevated sense of reality where anything goes. It's where 90% of OMORI takes place and is, for the most part, incredibly charming and fun. The tonal issues start to become apparent though when the Headspace sections lead into the Faraway Town segments, where, despite supposedly taking place in reality, still have a little too much whimsy and Earthbound-esque atmosphere. There's still wacky NPCs to talk to and goofy part-time jobs to have, which, while still enjoyable, isn't enough of a contrast to Headspace and doesn't mesh well with the relatively grounded and serious interpersonal drama between the core cast that revolves around grief and loss. It results in OMORI feeling like two disparate Quirky Earthbound-likes being duct-taped together without any real cohesiveness between the two halves, and only causes more issues down the line when the plot in Faraway town starts to actually go somewhere.

Headspace initially starts off as a low-stakes kid's adventure, which is perfectly fine for the Prologue, where it uses that initial impression to disarm the player when they first enter Faraway Town in the real world, but as is soon made apparent, Headspace is pure fluff, a complete nothing-burger that only really serves to pad out the runtime. Compared to the snappy pace and relative brevity of Faraway Town, Headspace tends to drag on for hours at a time with absolutely jack-shit happening, both literally and thematically. The various sprite animations, fancy textbox effects and UI is very charming and appealing at first, but the frequent use of them & their annoying length results in a start-and-stop gameplay flow that delights in wasting your time, and it's an issue that only gets worse as the game goes on, where long stretches of overly-goofy filler plot happen without anything substantive to bite into, that do nothing but pad out the runtime so the game can hit an arbitrary length quota. In addition to this, the idea of Headspace reflecting Sunny's inner thoughts is frankly underutilized, when that connection to the main character's subconscious could've been used to give the lengthy Headspace segments some more weighty thematic story relevance beyond simple visual callbacks to Faraway Town.

Despite the long stretches of nothing filler that feel like having a sugar crash, when OMORI wants to get serious, it can actually deliver more often than not. The subtle underlying horror of Headspace is pretty effective when it wants to be, and the drama of Faraway Town, while coming across like an afterschool PSA more often than not, is actually quite engaging and emotionally competent, but because OMORI is trying to maintain it's pastel Sanrio Lo-Fi Kawaii Future Bass Tumblr aesthetic at all times, this results in even the serious moments lacking punch because of the fact it's edges have been sanded down as smooth as possible for the sake of palatability. This is made most apparent with it's final plot twist at the very end of the game, which, without going into spoilers, is an insanely dark and out-of-left-field bout of tonal whiplash that is not only a massive misstep in the solid framework of the game's plot up until then, but is scrapping against the game's Instagram Self-Care™ Awareness Post-ass final message of overcoming depression and self-doubt by not being afraid to rely on your friends for help. It's way too big of an elephant to ignore and not something you can just drop in the player's lap and treat with the same levity with which the more mundane mental health struggles are in the plot. It's the most frustrating aspect of OMORI by far because I can see how it could work! It's not even presented badly in-game (in fact, the reveal is one of my favorite moment of the game bar none), but it's consistent adherence to the vibe initially established by Headspace ends up dragging what should be a master-class twist down hard.

OMORI is a frustrating, mixed bag of a game I want to like more than I do. It's playing all the right notes, and even manages to tug at my worn-out heartstrings with a surprising frequency, and I can see the appeal behind it; how it's managed to gather such a devoted fanbase that was emotionally wrecked by OMORI's style and presentation. However, it's too bloated, too messy and too toothless to make the landing it desperately wants to make. The video game equivalent of eating raw sugar by the handful.

When people talk about OMORI, the gameplay experience is rarely a topic that is ever discussed. There is a good reason for that. Namely, the game's battle system is lacking in substance. This was something that didn't hit me until a few weeks after I finished the game.

In short, the battle system is simply not very fun. The enemies you fight are really only distinguished by their appearance and stats. There are no gimmicks, no extra mechanics, and no twists or surprises past the first fight of the game. As you progress, enemies simply deal more damage and have more HP. When your party learns new special attacks, they are special attacks that more or less do more damage and cost more to use than your old ones. Minus Hero, the healer, none of the party members really feel like they cater to a specific style of play, other than to just do as much damage as possible. As such, there is never a strategy to battling, and it gets quickly bland and repetitive.

However, it's very clear that the story of the game was much more important to OMOCAT and her team than the gameplay was. Fortunately, that's where the game shines. The characters are very likable. The end of the game made me cry. The story is the experience of OMORI, and all in all, it's a good one.

For me, the gameplay issues spoil my opinion about the bulk of this game. But its good parts are great. If you find the style of this game appealing, you'll probably at least enjoy it, as did I.

One of the best cases for video games are art. Extremely moving story revelations, had literal shivers down my spine multiple times. I was on edge the entire last 2 hours of the game. After the game wraps up the only thing you want to do is go hug your loved ones. And if making you feel intense emotions, causing you to want to take real action in your life, and making you contemplate a message for hours or days after experiencing a piece isn't art, then I don't know what is.

The art style works on multiple levels. The mix of 8bit graphics and hand drawn pieces in between gives the game this uncomfortable nostalgia as if you're trying to remember the past but in a way that you want to, not in a way that the past actually was, which serves the story well. Going in I thought the horror elements would be more at the forefront, but they were less scary horror and more psychological damage horror. There are a few jump scares, but the breakdown of the video game medium is used to make many parts of the game feel extremely uncomfortable.

The music is fun upbeat and catchy during the bright sections, somber and wistful when referencing pleasant memories, and intentionally ear bleed inducing when facing the darker topics. Very well designed audio for what is intended, not a soundtrack I'd listen to outside of the game though.

Biggest complaint is length and accessibility. It's pacing is not great, to say the least. I'd say the game is almost twice as long as it needs to be to convey the same message it sets out to. I'd honestly have a really hard time suggesting anyone play this. I'm surprised the BL review score is so high since I'd imagine this game is extremely divisive and bounces off many people HARD. It's a game I'm glad I played and I'll continue to mull over for the next few days, but it's not something I would say I "enjoyed" or would ever play again.

Hauntingly nostalgic and blissful, harrowingly intimate and ultimately holistically hopeful, OMORI is an experience like nothing else. This game is, to me, unfiltered and unadulterated emotion weaved into a game in the most elegant manner possible as to convey these feelings with such intense memorability and longing. I don't know if a video game can ever top such a work for me ; brimming with atmosphere, style, emotion, intimacy and laden with meaning, I quite literally cried my eyes out for the last 3 hours of this game and it lingers on my mind to this day. Everything about this game, especially the ambience, soundtrack and visual design, create intense feelings to immerse you in an already intensely emotional narrative about a boy learning the importance of opening yourself up to grief, sorrow and your own wrongdoings, despite how painful it is. A complete masterpiece, one that uses the medium of gaming as a means of expression in a manner that nearly none have achieved before. The most impactful game I have ever played.

The game itself is fun, with nice art and decent combat.

But I found myself not interested in the story. The "Real world" story felt very predictable, without any real meat on its bones. Whatever it tried to tell wasn't for me.

In stark contrast, I really enjoyed the "dream" setting. Lots of wierd characters, fun locales, good bosses and witty dialogue.

I think the game would have been better off if it stuck to being a fun adventure with weird characters. Though, at that point I'd rather be playing the Mother series. Which coincidentally handles depression more maturely.

There are some gaming experiences where I realize that the best thing I can do to enjoy them is to shut-off the analytical side of my brain for a while and just go on whatever journey the developers have crafted. If for no other reason, I will always remember Omori for the way it just does "whatever it feels like doing."

But there are certainly more reasons to remember this experience and no matter how eccentric it got, it never felt like it forgot the player. This was an experience made to be shared.

[A Sketchbook World]

The most regonizable elements of Omori is also one of its strongest. The crayon and color-pencil art was executed so wonderfully. Every sprite and scene glows with character. The color palettes are often extravagent and playful but never to me felt "childish" or gaudy, and when the tone shifted drastically the purpose behind it could be felt and was never jarring. Animations were often fairly simple in terms of frame count, but they accomplished what they needed to and sometimes more.

I'm also quite in love with the way they used blurring and shading effects to give that feeling that you were sometimes looking at actual paper puppets.

[It is a JRPG]

It actually was a bit of a surprise to me how much traditional JRPG gameplay was here. There is a lot of exploration, sidequests, secrets, and combat. From the exploration side, I had a delightful time scouring Headspace and Faraway Town. They both presented all sorts of unexpected events and neither got too expansive, making sure you can hit all of the key points without derailing the pace of the game.

What a I really loved was that it didn't use checklists or neuron-firing loot rewards to bait you into it. I explored because I wanted to see where the long chain of destructable traffic cones would take me, or if the next NPC I talked to would show me another hilarious doodling of theirs.

The combat was fairly well done as well. It's never a demanding system, but it's engaging enough and is executed with the same sense of charm as the rest of the world. "Spectacle" isn't quite the word I'm looking for, but what carries it is something like that. There's a lot of little Quality-of-Life details as well which was nice.

If I want to get technical (which I can't help it, I do) I think the 'emotion' system was underdone and too easy to bypass entirely, especially late game. There could be an argument there was some intention to this, but it's very implicit if that's the case so I won't write it off as such.

[I can't process how much work this OST was]

179 tracks, most of which are very distinct and cover a fairly wide range of styles and instrumentations. From the synth/bit-tunes of Headspace to the nostalgic piano pieces and even some EDM combat music with a harpsicord mixed in, yet it all feels right in context. The music here is incredible and yet it never felt "forceful." It was an accompaniment to the visuals and narrative not the dictator.

[A painful narrative but not a bleak one]

My biggest concern going in was that the story would be either hamfistedly clumsy or esoterically pretentious. A concern that probably didn't come from the game at all but rather my own perspective on modern discourse around psychological matters.

I don't wanna write that essay now (or maybe ever), so I'll put it this way: for all the more abstract elements of Omori, it knew when to touch the ground and speak clearly without becoming long-winded. I really appreciated that.

A lot of elements of the story felt very familiar to me, so that hurt a bit. But a good hurt, I think.

[Yes]

I'm firmly of the belief that video games are a form of art. Omori is a good "game" but that's not the reason I would recommend anyone play it, that's just a nice sugar coating on a journey that wants you to experience a lot of different things, and one that was crafted with a lot of care and effort. Like all art, it will mean something different to every observer, and it might not mean anything to you. But, if the mood seems right, I can absolutely recommend looking for yourself to find out.

When making a quirky Earthbound-inspired RPG about depression, you can never be too careful about becoming a target for mockery. No one wants to be the guy that made YIIK. Yet unlike Undertale, Omori doesn't take refuge in audacity or silliness. Unafraid of being dismissed as corny, it bares its heart, plays its plot very straight, and doesn't shy away from extremely heavy topics.

I don't doubt that a lot of players will be upset by the sting in this tale - it verges on the unforgivable. Yet, lacking the clear black-and-white of a typical RPG, its story was one I thought about long after the end credits had rolled. For that, I feel, the game deserves credit.

That, and its unique art style, and its unsettling undertone of horror, and for how it captures the wistful feelings of a youth that will have passed most of its players by; so much so that the real-life sections are more absorbing than the fantasy ones. Omori is a game that feels like it was made for my generation, because who else would laugh as hard at an Internet Explorer download window being a video game boss?

O melhor: Arte e trilha sonora de alto nível em qualidade e variedade; Impressionante e memorável conclusão
O pior: O caminho para as partes realmente boas parece desnecessariamente longo e não é tão interessante
Manipulação emocional: Viu alguém bravo ou triste? Experimente jogar confete na pessoa...

Omori é um daqueles jogos meio complicados de analisar, sinto que ele é excelente em alguns aspectos e como um jogo faz coisas interessantes que merecem serem vistas e discutidas. Ao mesmo tempo, suas imperfeições, a longa duração, e os temas abordados podem facilmente afastar quem não ficar tão instigado com o mistério proposto.

Em sua maior parte, Omori é um RPG com combate por turnos, sobre a jornada do personagem que dá nome ao título que, junto aos seus amigos de infância, parte em busca de um outro amigo que está desaparecido. Essa jornada envolve navegar por mundos coloridos, encontrar personagens cômicos e enfrentar um sem fim de criaturas que alternam entre o fofinho e o bizarro. O combate por turnos é daqueles dos mais simples que se pode ter, tendo como diferencial uma mecânica de follow-up para cada ataque básico, e um sistema de status que traz vantagens e desvantagens no combate, num esquema de pedra-papel-tesoura, só que usando sentimentos para representar cada status (alegria-tristeza-raiva). É algo interessante conceitualmente, mas sinto que o jogo nunca consegue explorar esse sistema de forma que ele sustente o combate durante a maior parte da sua duração. É relativamente fácil explorar essas mecânicas e, em um ponto em que você acha uma estratégia que funciona basicamente com qualquer combate, ele deixa de ser interessante, e a grande quantidade de inimigos acaba mais incomodando do que qualquer outra coisa.

Quantidade, aliás, é algo que Omori tem de sobra. São vários lugares, inimigos, sidequests e segredos para encontrar. O jogo ficou 6 anos em desenvolvimento após uma campanha bem sucedida no Kickstarter e isso fica bem evidente com esse tanto de conteúdo e, mesmo que boa parte das histórias em paralelo não sejam particularmente muito interessantes, eu consigo apreciar o fato delas existirem e constituírem esse mundo. Essa apreciação é facilitada porque também fazem parte desse conteúdo uma excelente pixel art, especialmente nos combates, e uma fantástica trilha sonora, com temas diversos para cada situação (incluindo temas de batalha diferentes de acordo com a área visitada) e que trabalham perfeitamente para a ambientação do jogo.

A grande questão aqui, é que toda essa jornada, na verdade, é mais um pano de fundo para uma história menos lúdica, por assim dizer. Ao iniciar Omori, há um aviso sobre seu conteúdo, que envolve temas como depressão, ansiedade e suicídio, e de fato não demora muito pra ele mostrar que haverá sim partes onde o jogo se torna algo mais afundado no terror psicológico. Com o tempo, é fácil identificar as partes em que a história fica "mais séria", e é sobre os assuntos abordados e os mistérios a serem desvendados nesses momentos que Omori realmente mostra seu diferencial. Jump scares e inverossimilhanças a parte, o ato final da história, onde os "comos" e "porquês" são revelados, é feito de uma forma que torna toda essa experiência muito memorável, e é o elemento que, pra mim, eleva Omori de algo "apenas legal" para algo realmente marcante. Infelizmente, seu segundo ato muito arrastado, sempre apresentando algum elemento novo quando a história parece se encaminhar pros seus finalmentes, acaba tornando Omori como uma obra mais difícil de ser aquela recomendação certeira mesmo para quem aprecia jogos como Earthbound e Undertale. Mas eu posso dizer que valeu a pena focar e persistir.

Wanted to leave a review for this game after giving it another playthrough (making that my 6th) but ya i'm just gonna drop some thoughts and leave it alone for good.

I'm also gonna leave three links to tweets that feature my amazing steam review as a way to confess to my sin of being cringe
This review haunts me
I dont agree with it anymore
I refunded and bought the game again just to 100% it

So to start, this is a pretty atrocious game overall, from its dev time to the not so important controversies surrounding the creator in both lack of development updates and liking young boys from afar, I mostly just wanna focus on what the game does poorly cause it really doesnt do a whole lot right. Starting off is the length of the game, which is too long for what Omori wants to be. If the game clocked in at lets say 10-12 hours, that would be much better than the ~25 hours bloated mess the game is. There are whole sections in this game that add nothing to either the story or overarching experience and are clearly there to waste time (im looking directly at that stupid whale).

Characters are up next, and they are inconsistent. More so Headspace characters, as I have no issue with the Real World characters, i thought they were written just right to keep me invested. On the other hand, the characters in Headspace are badly written and come off annoying more than anything else, which idk if is on purpose given what Headspace is but thats up to theory. Although, i will stand by my belief that Basil is a nothing character that is only there for false sympathy moments. I didnt care about them, but I see a whole lot of people who do and it sure as hell isnt for what they do in the game, its more so the silly, warm dialogue and friendly demeanour, so removing them from the game would serve 0 change so why have them included in the first place.

The "horror" aspects of the game I thought would be a highlight, as I love a good psychological horror as it was so generously given the tag of, but aside from "the big story moment" nothing is "psychological" or "horror" about this game. Now this is completely down to my perception for what is scary and not scary, fully aware, I've seen quite a lot of horror media so im more desensitized to the themes presented in this game, but I also feel like how the themes are presented in the game dont do enough, its all abstract or obscured, so the creepiness comes from that angle rather than the full picture.

Now for the single paragraph where i say nice things :). I vibe with a few of the songs on the OST and the art direction and environments are cool. The Real World is the part of the game I was the most invested in which is a shame that its used as the "break in the action". I would've loved to see more impactful moments displayed in the real world, rather then saving those moments for Headspace (big exception for the last hour of the game before the ending cutscene, that goes extremely hard)

I would have loved to sit down and praise this game as so many other people have, but I just cant see what they see. I think there are games that have done its horror better and its story better, it plays out like someone who was inspired by better games and mushed those best parts together without the prior impact those parts had, leaving something almost soulless in its place.

I also wish I was an uber cool smart individual to express my points better, this review doesn't come from a place of hatred or hostility, more of disappointment

"Waiting for something to happen?"
...
"Everything is going to be okay..."

O que falar desse game? Pouco o que falar, muito o que sentir. Alias, OMORI se trata justamente disso, sentimentos. O quão forte são as emoções e como isso pode afetar um indivíduo ou seu entorno.

Perda, medos; superação. Negação, aceitação; Culpa. Ansiedade, depressão; crises – Suicídio.

Todos esses temas sensíveis trabalhados com bastante seriedade. Definitivamente não é um game para pessoas com o coração fraco.

Saindo um pouco da filosofia do game, ele se trata de um JRPG de turno padrão, as batalhas são bem simples com o diferencial de uso de emoções como buffs/debuffs, uma mecânica muito interessante e bem aplicada diga-se de passagem.

O modelo gráfico é lindo de morrer e bastante único, simulando esboços de caneta e lápis. O trabalho com cores e a ausência dela em diferentes cenários destaca ainda mais o conceito das emoções, alternando entre a realidade de OMORI e Sunny.

A história é dividida em 3 arcos. O 1° é muito bom e confuso. O 2° tem um desenvolvimento lento mas as peças começam a se encaixar, porém a exploração começa a se tornar um tanto cansativa e você chega num ponto onde só quer finalizar logo. E quando finalmente o tão esperado 3° arco se conclui, é recompensador. O epílogo de OMORI é fantástico! Carregado de lágrimas, com uma reviravolta esmagadora, nossa como doeu...

Concluindo, iniciei o game com alguns preconceitos, achando que era apenas hype dos dito cujos "cults", mas me surpreendi com um game de altíssima qualidade e que merece sim a fama que tem.

Sim, eu tenho depressão, como adivinhou??

nails every aspect of presentation including character, environment, and sound design - very impressive in this regard especially relative to its being an rpgmaker game. thematically all over the place but coalesces very well towards the ending - really loved the last hour or so of this game. lots of dead air, though - you could probably cut half the playable game time without losing anything good about the game between all the walking around and repetitive battles against normal enemies even if both of these come with the earthbound territory